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THE  SURVEY-IDEA  IN 
COUNTRY-LIFE  WORK 


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Training  Conference  for  L.  H.  Bailey 

Rural  Leaders 
Cornell  University 
July  26,  27,  1911 

The  Survey-Idea  in  Country-Life  Work 

It  is  commonly  understood  that  there  is  a  positive 
national  problem  lying  in  the  present  condition  of 
country  life.  Rural  affairs  are  not  sufficiently  repre- 
sented in  the  voice  of  the  people.  The  domination  of 
national  policies  lies  with  the  cities  or  with  the  types 
of  associate  and  corporate  interests  that  center 
chiefly  in  the  cities,  and  which  tend  to  exploit  or  at 
least  to  overlook  the  open  country. 

Many  processes  are  suggested  for  the  general 
regeneration  of  rural  affairs.  Each  of  these  proc- 
esses has  its  strong  advocates.  The  tendency  is  to 
project  many  separate  processes  or  methods  which, 
although  they  may  all  be  excellent  in  themselves, 
tend  to  separate  into  divergent  and  unrelated  lines 
of  effort.  We  are  not  to  hold  that  any  one  way  of  at- 
tacking the  rural  problem  is  fundamental  and  that 
others  are  unimportant.  Perhaps  every  method  that 
has  been  suggested  is  essential.  But  whatever  the 
means  and  movements,  the  scientific  method  must 
prevail.  The  scientific  method  is  first  to  determine 
the  exact  facts,  and  then  to  found  the  line  of  action 


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on  these  facts.  This  is  the  way  in  which  all  prob- 
lems must  be  attacked  if  real  and  permanent  solu- 
tions are  to  be  found.  The  scientific  method  in  en- 
gineering and  mechanics  and  biology  and  the  rest  has 
been  responsible  for  the  high  development  of  ciAdliza- 
tion  within  the  past  century.  Similar  methods  must 
be  applied  in  rural  work.  We  must  finally  found  all 
our  progress  in  rural  life  on  a  close  study  of  the  facts 
and  the  real  elements  in  the  situation,  in  order  that 
we  may  know  exactly  what  we  are  talking  about. 

A  movement  to  collect  such  facts  is  now  just  be- 
ginning to  appear.  It  is  generally  spoken  of  as  "ag- 
ricultural surveys. ' '  While  there  have  been  geologi- 
cal surveys,  soil  surveys,  and  studies  of  particular 
phases  of  the  rural  situation  for  many  years,  never- 
theless the  consciousness  that  the  entire  situation 
must  be  studied  in  all  its  relations  has  only  recently 
begun  to  take  possession  of  the  public  mind. 

The   Cornell  Contribution 

In  this  address  I  am  not  to  give  an  historical  re- 
view of  these  surveys  or  to  estimate  the  many  contri- 
butions that  have  been  made  to  the  idea.  I  plan  only 
to  answer  the  question,  so  often  put  to  me,  as  to  what 
Cornell  has  done  and  also  what  is  my  own  conception 
of  the  agricultural  survey  problem. 

At  Cornell,  the  survey-idea  began  to  take  shape 

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more  than  twenty  years  ago.  It  was  really  begun 
with  a  piece  of  work  in  1890  that  culminated  in  the 
publication  of  Bulletin  19,  "Report  upon  the  Condi- 
tion of  Fruit-growing  in  Western  New  York."  On 
the  passage  of  the  Experiment  Station  Extension 
Bill,  or  '^ Nixon  Bill,"  in  1894,  a  definite  program  of 
exploration  of  the  horticultural  industries  of  the 
State  was  begun,  and  several  bulletins  were  the  re- 
sult, such  as  ''Impressions  of  the  Peach  Industry  in 
Western  New  York,"  ''The  Cultivation  of  Or- 
chards, "  "  The  Geological  History  of  the  Chautauqua 
Grape  Belt,"  and  others. 

In  the  first  report  on  this  "extension  work  in 
horticulture,"  for  1895,  the  writer  made  the  follow- 
ing statement:  "Another  tj^pe  of  research  work 
which  w^e  have  undertaken  under  the  auspices  of  this 
bill  [the  "Nixon  Bill,"  applying  to  the  fifth  judicial 
department  of  the  State]  is  the  investigation  of  the 
conditions  of  certain  horticultural  interests  in  West- 
em  New  York.  In  the  interest  of  these  particular  in- 
quiries, we  traveled  no  less  than  25,000  miles  in 
Western  New  York  and  have  visited  and  examined 
many  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  plantations.  We 
have  attempted  in  these  investigations  to  learn  the 
actual  state  of  the  industries  and  to  suggest  means 
for  their  improvement.  They  are  really  the  begin- 
ning of  a  horticultural  survey  which  can  be  much  ex- 

3 


tended  with  great  profit."  In  the  second  report,  for 
the  year  1896,  it  was  said : ' '  The  animus  of  the  entire 
enterprise  has  been  an  attempt  to  inquire  into  the 
agricultural  status,  to  discover  the  causes  of  the  rural 
depression,  and  to  suggest  means  for  improving  the 
farmer's  position.  This  attempt  has  been  specifically 
directed  to  a  single  great  branch  of  rural  industry, 
horticulture,  in  pursuance  of  the  provisions  of  the 
law;  but  what  is  true  of  the  horticultural  communi- 
ties is  essentially  true  of  other  agricultural  regions, 
and,  moreover,  these  two  types  of  agricultural  indus- 
try cannot  be  separated  by  any  arbitrary  lines.  The 
work,  therefore,  has  practically  resulted  in  a  broad 
study  of  rural  economics.  We  conceive  that  it  is  im- 
possible really  to  extend  the  Experiment  Station  and 
University  impulse  to  the  people  in  such  manner  that 
it  shall  come  to  them  as  a  living  and  quickening  force, 
without  first  studying  the  fundamental  difficulties  of 
the  farmers'  social  and  political  environment." 

The  efforts  in  these  early  days,  however,  were 
necessarily  confined  mostly  to  work  with  crops  and 
with  schools;  but  the  ultimate  purpose — to  deter- 
mine the  real  basis  of  rural  life — was  clearly  in  mind 
in  the  direction  of  the  work. 

The  work  in  communities  gradually  took  on 
larger  meanings.  It  was  desired  to  ''round  up"  an 
entire  subject  in  a  region,  and  to  get  its  full  signifi- 


cance.  The  horticultural  survey  work  finally  culmi- 
nated in  the  excellent  apple-orchard  surveys  of 
Wayne  and  Orleans  Counties,  by  G.  F.  Warren,  under 
the  direction  of  Professor  Craig  (Bulletins  226  and 
229,  1905).  I  think  it  not  too  much  to  say  that  these 
surveys  marked  a  departure  in  this  kind  of  work, 
substituting  the  statistical  method  for  previous 
means.  Orchard  after  orchard  was  studied  in  person 
by  Warren,  and  the  financial  and  farm-management 
phases  of  the  situation  were  reported  with  care ;  and 
in  the  Wayne  survey  the  horticultural  condition  was 
articulated  as  far  as  possible  with  the  geological 
horizon. 

Other  surveys  of  this  general  character  have 
been  made,  and  one  of  them  has  been  published,  1910, 
as  an  ''Apple  Orchard  Survey  of  Niagara  County," 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  Craig;  and  a  corres- 
pondence survey,  under  direction  of  Professor  War- 
ren, was  published  in  1909  as  ''The  Income  of  178 
New  York  Farms." 

The  results  of  the  statistical  work  in  Wayne  and 
Orleans  Counties  were  so  striking  that  it  was  now 
proposed  to  apply  the  method  to  farming  in  general 
rather  than  to  a  single  crop  or  product.  In  1906,  un- 
der Professor  Hunt's  immediate  direction,  a  survey 
was  planned  of  Tompkins  County,  the  seat  of  the  New 
York  State  College  of  Agriculture.    It  was  found  at 


the  close  of  the  first  season's  work  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble, in  practice,  to  cover  all  or  even  a  large  part  of  the 
rural  situation  in  any  region  by  going  over  it  once; 
and  the  Tompkins  County  work  was  narrowed  to  a 
farm-management  survey, — that  is,  ^'to  find  the 
profits  for  the  year  on  each  farm,  and  to  find  what 
conditions  and  types  of  farming  result  in  the  largest 
profit  or  labor  income;  in  other  words,  to  find  why 
certain  farms  pay  better  than  others."  The  results 
of  this  survey,  published  in  1911  as  Bulletin  295,  un- 
der the  leadership  of  Professor  Warren,  make  a  dis- 
tinct contribution  to  the  country-life  movement ;  and 
so  far  as  we  know^,  they  represent  the  most  complete 
census-taking  of  its  kind  that  has  yet  been  under- 
taken. The  bulletin  is  a  document  of  nearly  200 
pages,  replete  with  carefully  secured  and  well  di- 
gested statistics  and  observations  on  the  profits  and 
losses  of  Tompkins  County  farms,  with  many  inter- 
esting and  applicable  deductions.  It  will  become  a 
source-book  not  only  for  its  region,  but  for  general 
study  of  the  problems  involved  in  the  business  man- 
agement of  farms. 

Personal  Statements  of  the  Survey-Idea 

As  I  am  asked,  on  this  occasion,  for  a  personal 
opinion  of  the  work  and  reasons  involved  in  agricul- 
tural surveys,  I  may  be  allowed  to  quote  statements 

6 


that  I  already  have  made  on  the  subject.  In  ''The 
State  and  the  Farmer,"  1908,  I  made  an  appeal  for 
the  collecting  of  complete  local  fact^    as  follows : 

A  thorough-going  study  of  the  exact  agricultural 
status  of  every  State  should  now  be  made,  and  it 
should  be  made  by  the  State  itself,  working  through 
an  agricultural  college.  Such  an  inquiry  made  care- 
fully and  without  haste  by  men  who  are  thoroughly 
well  prepared,  and  continuing  over  a  series  of  years, 
would  give  us  the  data  for  all  future  work  with  local 
problems.  We  must  have  the  geographical  facts. 
We  are  now  lacking  them.  We  talk  largely  at  ran- 
dom. We  must  discover  the  factors  that  determine 
the  production  of  crops  and  animals  in  the  localities, 
and  the  conditions  that  underlie  and  control  the  farm 
life.  Consideration  of  these  conditions  involves 
study  of  local  climate;  knowledge  of  the  kinds,  classi- 
fication and  distribution  of  the  soils  and  the  relation 
of  place  and  altitude  to  production  of  crops  and  live- 
stock; determination  of  the  best  drainage  practices 
on  various  soil  types;  consideration  of  the  cultural 
experience  and  manurial  needs  as  adapted  to  the 
types;  inquiry  into  the  practice  with  all  leading  crops 
and  products  of  the  localities;  study  of  the  possibili- 
ties for  farm  water-power;  collation  of  community 
experience.  Such  a  study  of  a  State  should  be  broad 
and  general  enough  to  consider  the  status  of  all  the 
agricultural  industries  in  the  State,  and  it  should  also 
take  full  cognizance  of  educational  and  social  condi- 
tions. 

This  constitutes  the  greatest  need  of  practical 
farming  at  the  present  day.  The  agricultural  insti- 
tutions are  working  out  the  principles,  but  they  may 
not  be  able  to  apply  these  principles  to  individual 
farms  because  they  do  not  know  the  exact  local  con- 
ditions. The  farmer  himself  may  not  know  the  prin- 
ciples, nor  even  the  local  facts.  The  result  is  a  lack  of 
articulation  between  the  teaching  and  the  practice. 


Farming  is  founded  on  the  facts  of  the  locality:  no 
business  can  hope  for  the  best  success  until  it  has  ex- 
act knowledge  of  its  underlying  conditions. 

These  kinds  of  inquiries  are  now  well  under  way 
in  the  form  of  "surveys"  of  many  kinds,  proceeding 
from  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  studies  of 
larger  range,  that  purpose  to  compare  general  agri- 
cultural conditions  in  the  Avhole  national  domain  and 
to  standardize  our  knowledge  of  them,  may  well  be 
undertaken  directly  by  the  national  government; 
but  the  commonwealth  itself  should  give  itself  the 
advantage  of  making  inquiries  into  its  OAvn  agricul- 
tural conditions.  The  survey  Avork  of  the  institu- 
tions will  be  greatly  perfected  in  the  next  few  years, 
and  we  may  expect  to  see  great  public  funds  devoted 
to  it.  The  surA^ey  parties  aa^II  comprise  strong,  all- 
round  men.  No  small  part  of  the  A^alue  of  such  sur- 
veys AAdll  be  the  discoA^ery  of  great  numbers  of  earn- 
est, competent  men  and  women  on  the  farms  who 
may  be  made  local  leaders,  and  the  recognition  that 
it  AA^ill  giA^e  to  good  agricultural  practice  CA^eryAA^here. 
EA^ery  thorough  surA'ey  should  be  the  forerunner  of 
ncAA^  ideals  for  the  conmiunities,  and  of  ncAV  points  of 
crystallization  of  local  effort.  It  should  make  ncAv 
paths. 

I  later  made  another  brief  statement  as  folloAvs 

in  "The  Country-Life  Movement,"  1911: 

The  taking  stock  of  the  exact  condition  and  ma- 
terials of  country  life  is  immensely  important,  for  we 
cannot  apply  remedies  before  Ave  make  a  diagnosis, 
and  an  accurate  diagnosis  must  rest  on  a  multitude 
of  facts  that  Ave  do  not  noAV  possess.  This  is  the  sci- 
entific rather  than  the  doctrinaire,  politics,  and  orac- 
ular method  of  approaching  the  subject.  It  is  of  the 
first  importance  that  we  do  not  set  out  on  this  new 
work  with  only  general  opinions  and  superficial  and 
fragmentary  knowledge.     Every  rural    community 


needs  to  have  a  program  of  its  own  carefully  worked 
out,  and  this  program  should  rest  on  a  physical  valu- 
ation. It  may  be  some  time  yet  before  the  importance 
and  magnitude  of  this  undertaking  will  impress  the 
minds  of  the  people,  but  it  is  essential  to  the  best  per- 
manent progress. 

Statemeni  of  the  Commission  on  Country  Life 

The  Commission  on  Country  Life,  1909,  after 
having  considered  great  numbers  of  suggestions  from 
persons  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  mentioned  as 
the  first  item  in  its  category  of  the  most  prominent 
deficiencies  in  country  life  in  the  United  States,  ''a 
lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  farmers  of  the  exact 
agricultural  conditions  and  possibilities  of  their  re- 
gions." It  also  stated  that  this  lack  of  knowledge 
constitutes  one  of  the  great  "underlying  problems  of 
country  life."  Its  main  statement  in  regard  to  the 
need  of  agricultural  or  country  life  surveys  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  time  has  now  come  when  we  should  know  in 
detail  what  our  agricultural  resources  are.  We  have 
long  been  engaged  in  making  geological  surveys, 
largely  with  a  view  to  locating  our  mineral  wealth. 
The  country  has  been  explored  and  mapped.  The 
main  native  resources  have  been  located  in  a  general 
way.  We  must  now  know  what  are  the  capabilities 
of  every  agricultural  locality,  for  agriculture  is  the 
basis  of  our  prosperity  and  farming  is  always  a  local 
business.  We  cannot  make  the  best  and  most  perma- 
nent progress  in  the  developing  a  good  country  life 
until  we  have  completed  a  very  careful  inventory  of 
the  entire  country. 


TMs  inventory  or  census  should  take  into  ac- 
count the  detailed  topography  and  soil  conditions  of 
the  localities,  the  local  climate,  the  whole  character  of 
streams  and  forests,  the  agricultural  products,  the 
cropping  systems  now  in  practice,  the  conditions  of 
highwa^^s,  markets,  facilities  in  the  way  of  transpor- 
tation and  communication,  the  institutions  and  or- 
ganizations, the  adaptability  of  the  neighborhood  to 
the  establishment  of  handicrafts  and  local  industries, 
the  general  economic  and  social  status  of  the  people 
and  the  character  of  the  people  themselves,  natural 
attractions  and  disadvantages,  historical  data,  and  a 
collation  of  community  experience.  This  would  re- 
sult in  the  collection  of  local  fact,  on  which  we  could 
proceed  to  build  a  scientifically  and  economically 
sound  country  life. 

Beginnings  have  been  made  in  several  states  in 
the  collection  of  these  geographical  facts,  mostly  in 
connection  with  the  land-grant  colleges.  The  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  is  beginning  by 
means  of  soil  surveys,  study  of  farm  management  and 
other  investigations;  and  its  demonstration  work  in 
the  Southern  states  is  in  part  of  this  character.  These 
agencies  are  beginning  the  study  of  conditions  in  the 
localities  themselves.  It  is  a  kind  of  extension  work. 
All  these  agencies  are  doing  good  work;  but  we  have 
not  yet  as  a  people  come  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
fact  that  we  must  take  accoimt  of  stock  in  detail  as 
well  as  in  the  large.  We  are  working  mostly  around 
the  edges  of  the  problem,  and  feeling  of  it.  The  larger 
part  of  the  responsibility  of  this  work  must  lie  with 
the  different  states,  for  they  should  develop  their  in- 
ternal resources.  The  whole  work  should  be  coordi- 
nated, however,  by  federal  agencies  acting  with  the 
states,  and  some  of  the  larger  relations  will  need  to 
be  studied  directly  by  the  federal  government  itself. 
We  must  come  to  a  thoroughly  nationalized  move- 
ment to  understand  what  property  we  have  and  what 


10 


uses  may  best  be  made  of  it.    This  in  time  will  call  for 
large  appropriations  by  state  and  nation. 

To  secure  these  results,  the  Commission's  first 
recommendation  is  that ' '  there  should  now  be  organ- 
ized, under  government  leadership,  a  comprehensive 
plan  for  an  exhaustive  study  or  survey  of  all  the  con- 
ditions that  surround  the  business  of  farming  and  the 
people  who  live  in  the  country,  in  order  to  take  stock 
of  our  resources  and  to  supply  the  farmer  with  local 
knowledge.  Federal  and  state  governments,  agri- 
cultural colleges  and  other  educational  agencies,  or- 
ganizations of  various  tvDes,  and  individual  students 
of  the  problem  should  be  brought  into  cooperation 
for  this  great  work  of  investigating  with  minute  care 
all  agricultural  and  coimtry  life  conditions." 

The  Scope  and  Character  of  Survey-work 
Surveys  may  be  of  many  kinds  and  for  many 
purposes.  Some  of  them  may  be  for  temporary  uses 
only,  in  the  nature  of  explorations  or  to  set  forth  a 
particular  line  of  ideas.  The  real  rural  survey  should 
be  an  agency  of  record;  and  it  is  this  type  of  effort 
that  I  am  now  discussing. 

We  must  distinguish  sharply  between  such  a 
survey,  made  slowly  and  studiously,  and  an  inspec- 
tion, a  canvass,  or  a  campaign.  These  lighter  efforts 
may  be  very  necessary,  but  they  usually  do  not  con- 

11 


stitute  investigation,  and  they  belong  to  a  different 
order  of  inquiry. 

If  a  survey  of  any  region  or  phase  is  to  be  a 
record  of  fact,  then  it  must  be  strictly  scientific  in 
spirit^  as  I  already  have  indicated.  It  must  discover 
and  set  down  every  fact  of  significance,  wholly  apart 
from  any  prejudice  or  bias  in  the  mind  of  the  ob- 
server: the  fact  is  its  own  justification.  The  work 
cannot  be  as  precise  as  that  in  the  mathematical  and 
physical  sciences;  but  in  its  purpose  it  must  be  as 
scientific  as  any  work  in  any  subject. 

If  the  work  is  scientific,  then  it  will  not  be  under- 
taken for  the  purpose  of  exploiting  a  movement, 
recruiting  an  organization,  spreading  a  propaganda, 
advertising  a  region,  or  promoting  the  personal  am- 
bition of  any  man.  There  is  indication  that  sur- 
vey-work will  soon  become  popular;  there  is  danger 
that  it  will  be  taken  up  by  institutions  that  desire  to 
keep  themselves  before  the  public  and  by  localities 
and  states  that  desire  to  display  their  advantages.  It 
will  be  easy  to  marshal  statements  and  arrange 
figures,  and  particularly  to  omit  facts,  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  a  most  attractive  showing.  Even  some 
honest  investigators  will  be  likely  to  arrange  the  ma- 
terial in  such  a  way  as  to  prove  a  point  rather  than  to 
state  the  facts,  unless  they  are  very  much  on  their 

12 


guard.  If  country-life  surveys  have  possibilities  of 
great  good,  they  also  have  equal  possibilities  of  great 
damage. 

The  goal  of  survey-work  in  agriculture  is  to 
make  a  record  of  the  entire  situation  and  to  tell  the 
whole  truth.  Fragmentary  surveys  and  piece-work, 
however  good  they  may  be  in  themselves,  do  not  rep- 
resent the  best  effort  in  surveys.  Practically  all  our 
surveys  have  thus  far  been  fragmentary  or  unrelated, 
but  this  is  the  work  of  a  beginning  epoch.  We  shall 
almost  necessarily  be  obliged  to  do  still  further  frac- 
tional and  detached  work ;  but  it  is  time  that  we  begin 
to  train  the  imagination  on  completer  and  sounder 
programs.  The  whole  basis  and  condition  of  the 
rural  community  must  be  known  and  recorded.  The 
community  must  know  where  it  stands.  It  must 
understand  its  assets  and  its  liabilities. 

Survey-work  is  legitimate  wholly  aside  from  its 
application.  I  have  no  patience  with  the  doctrine  of 
''pure  science," — that  science  is  science  only  as  it  is 
uncontaminated  by  application  in  the  arts  of  life ;  and 
I  also  have  no  patience  with  the  spirit  that  considers 
a  piece  of  work  to  be  legitimate  only  as  it  has  direct 
bearing  on  the  arts  and  affairs  of  men.  We  must  dis- 
cover all  things  that  are  discoverable  and  attack 
those  that  are  not  discoverable  and  make  record  of  it 

13 


all:  the  application  will  take  care  of  itself.  The  ap- 
plication of  science  lies  not  alone  in  its  employment 
in  particularities  here  and  there,  but  quite  as  much 
in  the  type  of  mind  and  the  philosophy  of  life  that 
result  from  it.  If  we  knew  our  exact  rural  status — 
in  materials,  accomplishments  and  deficiencies, — we 
should  by  that  very  fact  have  a  different  outlook  on 
the  rural  problem  and  a  surer  process  of  attacking  it. 
We  should  do  little  guessing.  We  should  correct 
many  vagaries  and  many  a  foolish  notion  to  which 
we  now  are  all,  no  doubt,  very  much  given.  We 
should  not  be  obliged  to  follow  blind  or  self-wise 
leaders.  A  substantial  body  of  accumulated  fact 
would  set  bounds  to  the  agitator. 

The  result  of  survey-work  in  agriculture  should 
be  to  tie  the  community  together.  Such  work  would 
provide  a  basis  for  real  judgment  on  the  part  of  every 
intelligent  resident  of  the  neighborhood.  One  inter- 
est would  be  tied  up  with  another.  Apple-growing 
would  not  be  distinct  from  wheat-growing,  or  church 
work  from  school  work,  or  soil-types  from  the  cream- 
ery business,  or  politics  from  home  life.  The  vicinage 
would  be  presented  to  the  citizen  as  a  whole.  Noth- 
ing, in  my  opinion,  would  do  so  much  to  develop 
pride  of  neighborhood,  local  patriotism,  and  com- 
munity common  sense  as  a  full  and  complete  knowl- 

14 


edge  of  what  the  community  is  in  its  resources,  its 
history,  its  folk,  its  industries,  its  institutions,  and 
its  tendencies. 

I  am  often  told  that  we  can  gather  all  the  infor- 
mation that  is  useful  by  surveying  representative 
commimities  here  and  there  rather  than  by  surveying 
all  communities, — that  if  we  take  stock  of  all  com- 
munities we  shall  be  endlessly  duplicating.  But  I 
think  that  I  have  now  said  enough  to  put  it  into  the 
mind  of  my  hearer  that  the  co7nmunity  needs  a  sur- 
vey for  itself.  We  are  to  build  the  life  of  every  com- 
munity on  the  fact  of  that  community.  It  may  not  be 
necessary  to  make  the  same  studies  or  even  equally 
extensive  studies  in  all  communities;  but  no  com- 
munity should  be  overlooked,  in  the  end,  if  we  desire 
a  correlated  evolution  of  rural  society. 

When  the  survey-idea  is  once  understood  and 
begun,  every  locality  will  desire  to  be  represented. 
Certain  regions  will  develop  full  surveys,  and  the  re- 
ports will  be  standard;  the  surveys  of  intermediate 
localities  may  not  need  to  be  so  elaborate  or  minute. 

When  we  finally  understand  our  problem,  we 
shall  make  our  best  survej^s  in  consecutive  order. 
We  may  classify  all  phases  of  survey- work  freely  un- 
der three  groups, — physical,    economic,    social;  and 

15 


the  order  of  the  surveys  should  preferably  follow  this 
sequence.  We  should  first  know  what  the  region  is, 
— geography,  physiography,  climate,  resources,  soils ; 
then  what  it  does, — the  farming,  the  industries,  the 
markets,  the  business,  the  profits-and-loss ;  then  how 
it  lives, — its  people,  its  homes,  its  health,  its  institu- 
tions, its  modes  of  expression,  its  outlook. 

I  very  much  doubt  the  lasting  value  of  surveys 
of  church  or  school  or  particular  crops  or  special 
products  that  are  not  founded  on  a  good  knowledge 
of  the  physical  and  economic  conditions  of  the  region. 

How  are  we  to  go  about  it  ? 

I  presume  that  we  have  no  models  for  these 
countrj^-lif e  surveys.  My  own  philosophy  of  the  situ- 
ation has  not  been  derived  from  the  current  social 
surveys  of  cities,  and  I  do  not  know  whether  their 
methods  will  apply  to  the  rural  work. 

These  new  surveys  must  be  serious  studies  on  the 
spot  rather  than  note-takings  or  correspondence. 
The  different  parts  of  the  survey  in  any  region  must 
be  made  by  different  persons  or  parties,  in  a  cumula- 
tive way.  Of  course,  as  I  have  said,  I  should  not 
estop  any  competent  person  or  agency  from  making 
a  partial  and  wholly  independent  study,  but  its  de- 
ficiencies should  be  recognized. 

16 


As  to  detailed  methods  of  making  surveys,  little 
need  be  said  in  an  address  of  this  kind.  The  success 
of  the  work  will  turn  on  the  personality  and  training 
of  the  man  who  undertakes  it.  It  must  be  done  in 
person:  that  is,  the  information  must  be  secured  by 
personal  visits  and  investigation.  The  questions 
should  be  few  and  significant.  The  particular  survey 
should  cover  a  definite  subject,  and  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  keep  it  from  scattering.  The  ten- 
dency is  to  cover  too  much  ground.  It  requires  time, 
patience  and  the  studious  temper  to  make  a  good 
survey.  At  least  one  experienced  person  should  be 
actually  in  the  field:  it  should  not  be  left  to  novices 
and  mere  explorers.  The  person  should  be  a  real 
student  of  the  subject  that  he  proposes  to  survey. 

To  ensure  the  best  results,  the  region  should  have 
good  topographical  and  geological  maps.  The  next 
step  is  a  soil  survey.  The  soil  surveys  now  issue  from 
the  federal  government  (United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture;  and  in  New  York  they  are  prop- 
erly cooperative  with  the  State  College  of  Agricul- 
ture. The  general  soil  survey  is  rightly  a  national 
undertaking,  for  there  should  be  a  uniform  charting 
of  the  national  domain  as  to  soil  types  as  well  as  to 
geological  types;  and  classifications  do  not  follow 
state  lines.  The  states,  however,  may  well  follow 
with  more  detailed  soil  surveys,  based  on  the  gen- 

17 


eral  charts,  and  relate  the  work  directly  to  local 
practice.  Undoubtedly  we  need  to  develop  more  uni- 
form and  comparable  methods  for  this  work ;  and  this 
could  be  brought  about  by  conferences  or  committees 
of  those  persons  specially  interested  in  the  soil  sur- 
vey program. 

A  study  of  the  local  climate  ought  to  be  a  part  of 
these  preliminary  surveys.  We  are  neglecting  the 
climate  factor.  Climate  is  distinctl}^  local.  With  soil, 
it  determines  the  farming  condition.  The  best  agri- 
culture is  a  careful  adjustment  to  the  climate  of  the 
district;  but  the  collecting  of  meteorological  data  is 
so  much  a  governmental  function  that  we  forget  the 
detail  climates  of  small  localities. 

It  is  not  so  clear  what  the  next  step  should  be  in 
the  stock-taking  of  a  region.  Sooner  or  later,  all  the 
natural  resources  of  the  area  should  be  carefully 
known.  Perhaps  these  resources  of  minerals  and 
metals  and  timber  and  streams  and  the  like,  will  be 
clearly  determined  in  the  geological  and  soil  and  farm 
surveys  themselves;  but  they  should  all  be  found  and 
recorded.  There  should  also  be  a  natural-history  sur- 
vey of  the  entire  wild  life  of  the  region,  culminating 
in  the  publication  of  good  local  floras  and  faunas ;  but 
perhaps  this  may  wait  for  later  development.  It  is 
probable  that  a  thorough  farm-management  survey 
would  best  follow  immediately  on  the   soil   survey, 

18 


taking  inventory  of  the  farm  values,  the  methods  of 
farming,  the  crop  schemes,  the  incomes,  the  invest- 
ments, the  labor  cost,  the  profit-and-loss.  We  should 
know  how  the  conditions  and  materials  of  the  farms 
are  utilized. 

A  farm-management  survey  considers  farms  as 
business  units.  This  would  probably  best  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  careful  study  of  the  general  business  situ- 
ation in  the  region,  as  respects  markets,  railroads, 
taxation,  credit,  land-tenure,  labor-market,  and  the 
like.  This  is  the  field  of  rural  economics,  considering 
the  farmer  not  in  reference  to  the  production  of 
crops  on  his  own  farm,  but  in  his  business  relations  to 
his  community  and  surroundings. 

These  foundation  registers  having  been  made, 
the  various  crops  or  products  of  the  region  may  be 
chosen  for  detailed  study,  as  the  fruit  crops,  truck 
crops,  flower  crops,  home  gardens,  wood-lots,  pas- 
tures, grain  crops,  new  crops,  milk  and  butter 
production,  poultry,  sheep,  cattle,  swine,  horses,  and 
the  like.  All  such  supplementary  studies  should  take 
full  account  of  every  preceding  study  and  endeavor 
to  determine  how  far  the  particular  industry  is  col- 
ored or  shaped  by  the  underlying  physical  and  eco- 
nomic conditions.  Every  survey  should  articulate  as 
far  as  possible  with  every  collateral  survey. 

On  this  basis  many    special    and    interesting 

19 


studies  may  be  projected  from  year  to  year, — studies 
of  the  industries,  the  homes  and  domestic  welfare, 
the  sanitation,  education,  business  cooperation,  the 
possibilities  of  engineering  development,  the  re- 
ligious reactions,  re-creation,  child-study,  special 
vital  statistics,  ethnological  and  historical  studies, 
public  relations,  and  the  general  social  welfare. 

These  surveys  will  be  made  by  many  agencies. 
The  strictly  agricultural  parts  will  naturally  be  ac- 
complished by  colleges  and  schools  and  departments 
of  agriculture  and  by  experiment  stations.  Societies, 
churches,  individuals,  and  all  agencies  representing 
welfare  will  contribute  and  cooperate. 

Ever}^  State  must  soon  face  the  problem  of  pro- 
jecting a  regular  program  of  stock-taking  of  its  agri- 
cultural resources.  If  the  work  is  effective,  it  must 
be  wholly  free  of  political  methods. 

Forecast 

I  have  now  sketched  a  rough  outline  of  my  hope 
in  the  country-life  survey.  Looked  at  from  the  start, 
it  may  seem  to  be  an  ambitious  program;  but  it  will 
come  only  year  by  year  and  piece  by  piece,  and  no- 
body will  be  startled  in  the  process.  It  will  be  for- 
tunate if  we  have  a  clear  conception  at  the  outset  of 
the  results  that  are  to  be  desired,  and  if  our  work  pro- 
ceeds in  an  orderly  way.    We  must  conceive  a  prog- 

20 


ressing  enterprise.  Wliat  we  are  aimmg  at  is  the  rec- 
ord of  community  experience,  as  a  guide  to  further 
action.  The  parts  of  the  work  eventually  will  aggre- 
gate themselves  into  a  Book  of  the  Community, 
which  will  represent  all  that  the  conununity  has  done 
and  what  it  hopes  to  do. 


21 


JOURNAL    PBINT,   ITHACA,   N.    Y. 


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